Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

New poll: Favourite new JJ2+ feature? - January 30th 2013

Best playable experience?

Jazz Jackrabbit 1	7 votes (19%)
Jazz Jackrabbit 2	29 votes (80%)
Total votes: 36

Well, that’s clear, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is still your favourite game out of the two main JJ games. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that a few days ago the playing experience got even better (or at least, I’d hope so), considering that after two and a half years there’s finally a new JJ2+ release!

There’s a huge amount of fixes and new features, so no better poll question than what’s your favourite new JJ2+ feature? For me personally it’d be the scripting support (seriously, check out the example levels), but maybe you’re a huge fan of the fireball gun or the builtin /ready support.

epicclassics.com vanishes - January 30th 2013

Confession: I don’t know much about this story besides what it says in the title. epicclassics.com was somehow affiliated with our old friend Epic Games/Epic MegaGames, and was really the only place left on the internet where you could buy Jazz Jackrabbit 1. It was extremely low-tech — I doubt the page design had been updated since 1994, and the prices certainly weren’t — but it was there, it was legal, and it seemed to be affiliated with Epic somehow. I’ve seen speculation that it was run by CliffyB’s father, or some one of Tim Sweeney’s relatives… honestly, I couldn’t tell you.

Anyway, it’s gone. Epic community-relations person Flak used it to respond to someone who wanted to buy Jazz 1 back in February, and Archive.org had it as still existing as recently as July, but I can’t find any more recent mention. So… sometime in the last half year or so, we lost Epic Classics. UPDATE: The WHOIS listing says that the site registration was last changed on October 19th, so that’s a possibility.

Optimistically, this is tied to the opening of Epic’s new Epic Store last month, which could mean that it’ll eventually take over where Epic Classics left off and provide some of the older titles. Pessimistically, whoever was behind it got tired of the gig. Time will tell, hopefully.

(Obligatory GOG wishlist links: JJ1, JJ2. )

New JJ2+ release - January 29th 2013

It’s been many teasers and many release dates, but the new JJ2+ is finally out.

http://www.jazz2online.com/jj2plus/

Some assorted new features:

• Fireball gun (from 1.00g/h) re-implemented
• New /ready command, so you no longer need Get Me R!
• Scripting support for level creators
• Numerous new and expanded events
• 3D TV support

Be sure to check out the readme, as usual!

JCS Awards 2012 - January 17th 2013

Source: JCF thread

Votes have been counted and winners have been revealed. Here are community members’ choices of the best uploads of the year:

Best Battle Level of 2012: Frozen Lake by Snooze
Best CTF Level of 2012: Black Jack by Superjazz
Best Other MP Level of 2012: Flood Control by Ragnarok
Best MP Pack of 2012: New Ages V by Snooze
Best Single Player Release of 2012: Resurrection of Evil Episode 2 by Laro B. and Queen of Board by Sir Ementaler
Best Tileset of 2012: Scorpio Key by Violet CLM
Best JCSer of 2012: Snooze

Congratulations to all winners and good luck in 2013!

JCS Awards 2012 - Voting - January 2nd 2013

Source: JCF thread

The voting for the best JCS contributions and contributors of the year has just begun. Visit the JCF thread and choose what nominations in your opinion deserve the awards the most!

Feliz navidad - December 25th 2012

On behalf of the Jazz2Online staff, I wish you all a merry christmas and a splendid new year. Enjoy the last few days of 2012!

Epic opens store; sells Jazz t-shirt - December 18th 2012

Source: Epic Store

It’s been a long time since you could buy the original JJ1 and JJ2 t-shirts, but with the release of its new Epic Store, Epic Games has just created an all-new Jazz Jackrabbit t-shirt for you stalwarts to buy! It shows the JJ1 logo, surrounded by twenty-two of his sprites, on a black or purple shirt. It’s also the first time they’ve sold anything Jazz-related in a very long time. Jazztastic!

The t-shirt appears in the “retro” section of the store, along with a shirt based on Unreal Tournament, released in 1999, and another based on Bulletstorm, released in 2011. Jill of the Jungle remains uninvited.

Epic says on their blog “Be sure to give us your feedback and let us know what you’d like to see in future updates!”, so be sure to head on over and do exactly that!

New poll - December 10th 2012

Best also-ran playable experience?

JJ2 Christmas Chronicles	18 votes (45%)
JJ3 Alpha	15 votes (37%)
Jazz Jackrabbit Advance	7 votes (17%)
Jazz iOS Stick Shooter Demo	0 vote (0%)
Total votes: 40

So, to summarize. JJ3, JJA, and the stick shooter thing all introduced their own unique engines, weapons, graphics, and (except for the stick shooter) music and plots. Christmas Chronicles introduced… a green background for the menu. Somehow the very fact that it uses the JJ2 engine boosted it up over everything else. Okay. But how about the top of the barrel instead? What is the best playable experience?

JJ1 has more levels and tilesets, but JJ2 has significantly more of both if you count fan content. JJ1 lets you edit more aspects of a level, but JJ2 is simpler to make levels for. JJ2 has more playable characters, but in JJ1 you could shoot as a bird. JJ1 has 3D bonus levels and lots of secret levels and cutscenes, JJ2… doesn’t. JJ1 is much harder and has a smaller resolution, but that’s not always a good thing. JJ2 has online multiplayer. JJ2 has more detailed graphics and far more animations, but JJ1 has more inventive design. I could go on. But maybe you should instead?

Answer the question in any way you like. Include HH98/CC99/TSF and HH94/HH95/JJCD in your considerations if you want, or else don’t. The only way to do this wrong is not to vote at all.